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Alfred, set up properly, using only the free tier
My Entire Alfred Workflow: Supercharge Your Mac (for free)!
About this video
Ten minutes on the free tier, which is the whole premise: settings at 0:45, the four ways to summon the window at 1:16, then default results, file search, keyword search and custom searches in order. Paid features get a single chapter at 8:14, and the Alfred-versus-Raycast opinion is the last minute.
The premise is stated in the first line of the description and it is worth taking seriously: the free version of Alfred is enough. Everything the video teaches in its first eight minutes is available without paying, and the paid features are shown — deliberately — as a fast tour near the end rather than as the substance.
The order is sensible in a way that is easy to miss. Settings first at 0:45, because Alfred’s defaults are not where most people want them. Then the four ways to invoke it at 1:16, which is the part a new user genuinely does not know. Then preferences in the order they matter: what shows up by default, what gets searched, what a keyword does.
That middle section is where the video earns its length. File search runs from 2:29 to 4:41 — more than two minutes, and the longest stretch until the custom search walkthrough at 5:06 overtakes it — and it is the right emphasis, because scope is the difference between a launcher that finds what you meant and one that buries it under noise. Custom searches at 5:06 are the sleeper feature: a keyword and a URL, and every website’s search box becomes something you can call from the keyboard.
The last two minutes are the weakest, and honestly so. The Powerpack tour at 8:14 covers themes, clipboard history, snippets and workflows in about thirty-five seconds, which is a menu rather than a demonstration. The Alfred-versus-Raycast section at 9:34 is a personal verdict from May 2022 — useful as an opinion, and the one minute here that has aged the most, because it is the only minute that depends on what the other app could do at the time.
What it covers
- File search preferences run from 2:29 to 4:41 — over two minutes, and the longest stretch until custom searches at 5:06, because search scope is what decides whether the app is useful or noisy.
- Custom searches at 5:06 are the free-tier feature most people never find: a keyword plus a URL turns any website's search box into an Alfred command.
- Everything from 8:14 is the paid Powerpack — themes, clipboard history, snippets, workflows — shown in under a minute as a menu of reasons to upgrade.
- The comparison at 9:34 is the most perishable minute in the video, since it is the only part that depends on what the other app could do in May 2022.
Chapters
Chapter times are the creator's own list, published in the video description.
